Press Release April 30th 2023 – Early School Leaving (ESL) is a serious issue that affects many young people across the globe. There are many reasons why some young people give up education and (vocational) training prematurely: personal or family problems, learning difficulties, fragile socio-economic situation and of course the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the number of Dutch early school leavers has not been as high in MBO in the past ten years as it is now, due to Corona (AD, 30/4/2023). The ‘Early Digital Diagnosis and Intervention (EDDI)’ project helps teachers, families and students to better understand the causes and consequences of leaving education early. We have produced an electronic platform with modules, a catalogue and an android application in English, Dutch, Turkish and Greek. These outputs are contributing new solutions to help tackle the problem of Early School Leaving (ESL).
Effective EDDI Outputs
The EDDI project has developed a clear, holistic community-wide action plan for providing robust diagnostic tools that are capable of detecting problems early. The platform, the modules, the catalogue and the android application enable educational institutions to offer support to vulnerable students early, thus reducing the risk of early school leaving. We have involved family, teachers and students (14-25 years old) from mixed international groups. Furthermore, the EDDI project has benefited from the support of local social agencies, educational authorities and ICT solution partners. Through the multiplier events held in each country, we got some really good feedback on the outputs produced. We are happy to conclude that the feedback seems to suggest that we have achieved our aim, and are outputs reduce the risks of early school leaving, keeping students in education and/or in training.
EDDI Productions
The EDDI project has brought together innovative methods, digital interventions and pedagogies addressing the reasons for early school leaving, and has proposed approaches to early ESL diagnosis, prevention and intervention. Our project has managed to successfully deliver the following results:
1. The EDDI platform offers you a free course consisting of 4 modules with the aim of preventing early school leaving and improving the quality of education. You can reach the platform also from the QR code.
2. The EDDI Catalogue presents the policy recommendations and the Needs Analysis Report from the partner countries (United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Netherlands and French Polynesia) with regards to Early School Leaving ESL). Moreover, it provides an overview of the partner countries’ educational systems and good practice examples.
3. The EDDI Android Application offers the opportunity to access the EDDI training material fast and smoothly through your mobile phone, for free, through a QR scan, via MobinCube Store and the Google Play Store!
Multiplier Events for Students, Families & Teachers
Multiplier Events have taken place in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece and the Netherlands during April 2023. The EDDI-partners have had an opportunity to inform our stakeholders and beneficiaries about our project outputs and discuss the drop-out phenomenon. The project has undertaken a comparative review of national ESL practices and interventions, which included countries that have low (Early School Leaving) ESL statistics and those at the opposite end of the scale, to help deliver sustainable solutions to the ESL problem.
The project had lined up, among others, the following questions: It is clear that students vulnerable to early school leaving are not fully engaged in either education or the labour market. But why? What are their experiences? What are the needs of this target group? It is necessary to find out the reasons for drop-outs. What factors influence particular personal attitudes and behaviours? Why isn’t enough action being taken to address drop-outs? Why do existing school digital services and programmes fall short of delivering the warning indicators? What would make programmes that support early school leavers successful? How do students’ personal experiences affect subsequent behaviour? What type of digital services would meet the needs of early school leavers? What actions are needed to make programmes and digital services more effective?
A lot of participants joined the multiplier events and the feedback suggests we achieved some pretty good results. The Dutch EDDI multiplier event, held on April 24th in Leiderdorp, The Netherlands had some amazing feedback from the participants: 76,2% really liked the EDDI android app, 71,7% liked the EDDI Platform and 65,2% liked the EDDI Catalogue. The full EDDI programme was packed with exciting presentations and a vibrant EDDI market place. Pieter van Schie and Carla de Vreij were the hosts of the day. ,,The discussions and feedback on what we have showcased was pretty good’’, said Pieter. ,,The feedback was also that the blended way of the modules really gave a lot of excitement and energy on the topics.”
Did you know that…
- Teachers, trainers and lecturers who really know their students can make a difference.
- 100% of the participants of the Dutch EDDI multiplier event said that during the event they were provided with an opportunity to learn new things and improve their knowledge on preventing school drop-outs
- That Dutch schools try to get their students back to school by calling, sending them WhatsApp messages and even by sending them personal postcards.
- For years, the wrong choice of education was one of the biggest causes of school dropout, but since the program ‘M-Year, mind the gap!’ has been introduced, an initiative that started in 2021 in Alphen aan den Rijn has made a change so far been so successful that it will also be offered at MBO Rijnland Gouda as well from the 2023-2024 academic year.
- De Hugo de Grootschool in Rotterdam went from the worst school in the Netherlands to one of the best schools in the Netherlands in five years!
